The Fifth Doctor turns 40!

40 years ago today, Castrovalva, the Fifth Doctor's first ever story, aired on BBC One. To mark the occasion Big Finish are releasing the first of two Fifth Doctor box sets under the simple, self-explanatory title of Forty.

ⓒBig Finish Productions

The youngest actor to play the Time Lord at the time, Peter Davison was cast as the Fifth Doctor in 1980 by then-producer John Nathan Turner. Davison's incarnation quickly became a fan favourite with Davison having returned to the role multiple times over the past 40 years, most notably in the 2007 Doctor Who Children in Need Special Time Crash, in which he starred alongside fellow Doctor and future son-in-law David Tennant and Big Finish Production's Doctor Who-based audio plays, which he began starring in 1999 and continues to appear in today. 

Peter Davison's most recent appearance in a Big Finish Production is in the first volume of Forty which marks the anniversary of his first episode. 

“Can it really be 40 years since Peter Davison stepped into his cricketing gear and brought a whole new zest and energy to Doctor Who?" said producer David Richardson in a statement released on the Big Finish website, "The anniversary of the arrival of the first young Doctor deserves to be celebrated...and many old friends are back alongside some of the show’s best-loved foes."

One of the foes returning are the Cybermen who feature in the first episode Secrets of Telos, a sequel to 1967's Tomb of the Cybermen.

“It’s always fascinated me that Tomb of the Cybermen isn’t a story that definitively ends." said David Richardson, "There’s a loose strand of story left floating at the end of episode four – and that strand of story launches us straight into Forty."

Forty is out now and is currently available to purchase exclusively from the Big Finish Website. 

Peter Davison's TV season's as the Doctor are out now on DVD and Blu-Ray and are available to watch on BritBox in the UK and US.